Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

fear not reproaches; but beware of giving the enemies, or professed friends, just ground of reproach.

"Walk in the sight of God and man both, without offence; and then, if men will be offended, let it be for your duty, and not for your sin. But oh! be tender of the glory of God; let there be no vain janglings, or foolish and unlearned questions among you, knowing that they gender strife. Be tender one of another; do not reprove every small circumstance, till ye have God with you in your reproof, and the thing be a known sin. Avoid evil company, and rather draw yourselves to prayer when alone, and with company when ye can have the occasion, and miss no occasion, for it will be the ready way to cause the Lord to leave you and the land; and then woe to you, if He depart from you. Oh! invite one another to prayer, especially young folk, for I think, if the Lord do good to this generation, it will be to young folk. Oh! babes and sucklings, set to the work; for the Lord hath promised, that, 'out of the mouth of babes and sucklings He will perfect praise.' Who knows, if ye be at your duty, but the Lord will yet send teachers who will stand in the gap, to hold away wrath, but till the Lord send them, stand in the gap yourselves; and when ye have got them, lay not all the stress upon them, lest the last plague be worse than the first.

"Oh! keep warfare against corruptions, and the devil, in everything. Oh do not make an idol of the godly, though they be really godly, zealous, judicious and prudent; I do not mean the prudence that the deniers of Christ and His kingly office mean. Let God be your only God, and not another. Use all things to the use of edifying, and strengthening one anothers' hands. Own and maintain your brother's just cause, when it comes to an hearing, especially in the matters of God, and receive one another, but not to doubtful disputations. Join with and own the godly who are penitent, though there be faults and failings, providing they be sensible of their guilt; for the Lord maketh more of one prodigal, or of one lost sheep, that is come home, or is found, than He doth of ninety-nine, who went not astray. So ought ye to do among yourselves: but beware of any sinful union.

"Do not grip after ministers, till they at least come to take up the work where Mr Donald Cargill left it. Ye will not find them honest till ye find them so; for I know there is none who will venture all for Christ and His cause, (I mean their lives, liberties and fortunes,) till they be such and there are none but such who

6

can be counted faithful; for He hath said, 'He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, houses or lands, better than Me, is not worthy of Me;' and that they who do so, cannot be My disciples.' Therefore you must of necessity look to these things among yourselves, till the Lord send shepherds who will search for the flock, and not leave nor tear the flock in delivering them into the hand of their enemies; as we have the sad experience of it this day. Oh! I would not be in the case of the ministers of Scotland this day, for the world.

"Consider Luke xvii. 10: 'So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you, say, "We are unprofitable servants!" Let the law of God be your rule; and when ye have done all to keep the law, yet consider that it cannot merit any good thing; but you must lean only to the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ; but yet the law must be observed and obeyed. It is true, no mere man is able perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but let not this be your snare, for it is the snare of many of this generation. Oh! sirs, study the Scriptures. Walk by the strictness of the law of God, and the liberty of the gospel of peace; but do not abuse your liberty, to cause the way of God to be evil spoken of.

"I speak as a dying man; that which I have learned from the word of God, and the turnings of dispensations. Oh! He hath taught me, by His word and gospel, and the teaching of His Spirit, many things that I cannot express; not one of a thousand. Oh! He hath filled my mouth many a time with arguments, till I could go no further; I desire to speak it to the commendation of free grace. Oh! if the enemies knew what true grace was, they would not do as they do. But truly I think the judgment shall be terrible that they shall be trysted [i.e., visited] with. Oh! it hath been weighty to me, to think on their destruction and misery, which I have thought upon many a time to be eternal; and yet I have thought, upon the other hand, that it was my duty, when God's justice passed the sentence, to say, Amen (as it were) and so have desired that the Lord would let His determination be executed upon them.

"Now, there needs none of the suffering remnant be discouraged, for God is God, and His Word is His Word; and there is no change of times, nor alteration of dispensations, but the Word will clear all, in some place of it; and there is no sin that can be committed, but there is a reproof in the Word of God to suit it; nor one objection in the heart, but there is an answer for it from the Word: so study

the Word of God, and implore His presence in reading of it. Make much use of the Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms; mind our Covenants, National and Solemn League. Be not drawn away with the tyranny and perjury of the time. Know that God is God, and that He will not sit with [i.e., endure] the wrongs He hath gotten by the tyranny and perjury of these men; I mean him whom they call supreme magistrate, Charles Stuart, and these under him. God be thanked, His Church is well quit of him; though a gallows be set up for the Church, and all the Jews, yet it is like, Haman must have a swing of his own weight on the gallows he hath prepared, or else some more disgraceful death. Mind Rutherglen Testimony and Sanquhar Declaration, and the papers found at the Queensferry. Do not think that these will fall to the ground. Mind our martyrs' testimonies, and everything consistent with the word of God.

"Do not think, but God will be about [i.e., deal] with this generation, for setting so light of such things, and casting them behind their backs. For I declare, I adhere to every sound writing that is according to the word of God, be the author who will; I say, I declare it as a dying man. Indeed this generation think no better sport, than to take any person and cast him into prison; and if they but find (when they have searched them most barbarously) a paper that there is any religion in, be they man or woman, lad or lass, presently they impeach them with treason; yea, but I am sure of this, that God will not sit with [i.e., endure] such things, but He will be about with them, be who they will. Oh! but it is sad to see such things; this land doubtless is ripening for a stroke, and a judgment will pursue it. Oh! who would have thought that Scotland would have quit with their covenanted God, and have trode upon all who have the image of God in any manner to be seen in them.

"It is true, all things work to the good of them that love Him. It is this that makes a prison, a banishment, a gallows where none uses to be hanged but murderers, sweet indeed. They think it will be for our disgrace, ignominy and shame, to take us to the Gallowlee to be executed; but they are all beguiled; it will be for our honour; our God is wise enough for all that. They think it is the disgrace of the Presbyterians in Scotland, to have our heads hanging, and to be hanged up before the sun. Nay, but they are all beguiled; for it will be recorded from one generation to another, that there was a party of ministers and people, who sealed the Covenant with their

blood, and their heads were set up for a token of the Lord's kindness to the land. But, for my part, I think myself unworthy to be reckoned among such; yet I hope that it shall be said amongst them in these days, that, if there had not been a party to suffer in our cities, they would have had nothing but vile Popery in the land, and [there] will be rejoicing that ever there was any to suffer for Christ in Scotland. Oh! Scotland, is there any land so highly honoured as thou ait? None that is to be seen or heard of; but yet thou hast been of all nations the most treacherous and bloody. Was ever a land so bloodthirsty !

"I can say no more; but oh! be earnest with God, and do not leave off your duty, or otherwise I can see nothing but that the dreadful judgment of God shall both pursue you and the land. Indeed, if ye remain at your duty, it may be that ye shall prevail with the Lord, both for yourselves and for the land. But I must leave you to Him, who is your God, to lead and guide you in all truth and honesty, both towards God and man, so I leave you to Him. Now farewell, thou vile Scotland; farewell thou highly honoured Scotland. Farewell ye friends in Christ; and all friends and acquaintances. Farewell life, and liberty in this life. Welcome Christ, heaven and eternal salvation, for ever and ever! "Sic subscribitur,

"DAVID FARRIE."

James Stuart.

ODROW'S account of James Stuart is "He was a young man, I might almost have termed him a boy, of good and serious inclinations, who had never been, as far as I can learn, engaged in anything for which the law could have reached him. He came in from the west country to see a relation of his [a brother] in prison at Edinburgh. By what means, I know not, the other got

out, and he was found in the room whence the other escaped. Whereupon he was brought before a committee of Council, and soon ensnared by their questions. When he was silent in some heads, and would not answer, some papers before me bear that Sir George Mackenzie threatened to take out his tongue with a pair of pincers. [Stuart states this in his testimony.] Precisely upon his answers he was condemned, and in a few days after was taken and executed with the rest at the Gallowlee."-ED.]

[graphic]

HE LAST SPEECH AND TESTIMONY of JAMES
STUART, who suffered at the Gallowlee, Edinburgh,
October 10th, 1681.

"DEAR FRIENDS,-I being in prison for Christ, and His persecuted cause, though some may say otherwise, and that upon the account of my taking; but I do not care what anv say, for I have had, and yet have, great peace in my sufferings.

"But some will be ready to say, that it was an imprudent and an unsure action, and so might have been forborne; and suppose it be so, it is not the head of my suffering, for it was not that upon which I was staged [i.e., accused]; for I was presently staged for the truth, the next day after I was taken, being brought before a committee, though indeed I was not so free as I should have been. There is a passage, Acts xxi., of Paul's going up to Jerusalem, which some say he might have forborne-but more especially his going up to the temple and doing these things which are according to the law. He might (I say) have forborne this, and walked consonant to his former practice, doctrine, and writings; but though his going to the temple was the occasion of his taking, yet it was not the head of his suffering.

"So I say, though that which I did in relieving my brother was the occasion, yet my suffering was stated on another head. But I cannot see how it is as ye say, for I, seeing it my duty, and finding opportunity, had a clear call for all that I did. And besides all that, we being bound in covenant to defend and maintain one another, we

« ForrigeFortsæt »